I know a lot of us wish we could rotate the HDR to direct the light source, but here's my workaround - just rotate the whole scene instead. Simply group your entire scene including the camera and link it to an invisible cube (parent) below the scene. Whenever you want to move your HDR light source select just the cube and rotate it. Everything will stay in exactly the same place - but the light will move where you want it. You can even see it happen realtime with the openGL of your graphics card. Happy Bryce6 HDRI's. Scott

I do the same thing in Cinema. The sun's sense of North is tied to the world's axis system - great for accurate archviz work but frustration incarnate for use artsy types.

Isn't that the truth? Art is always so much more than what is technically correct. For me the world of 3d is more like making a world then shooting it with my own special camera. Isn't it ironic that we are relying on the most amazing technology to realize our dreams of the purest art?

Yes we work with very hi tech brushes to do this but it is still our vision, skill and technique that speak ultimately.

Quote - I know a lot of us wish we could rotate the HDR to direct the light source, but here's my workaround - just rotate the whole scene instead. Simply group your entire scene including the camera and link it to an invisible cube (parent) below the scene. Whenever you want to move your HDR light source select just the cube and rotate it. Everything will stay in exactly the same place - but the light will move where you want it. You can even see it happen realtime with the openGL of your graphics card. Happy Bryce6 HDRI's. Scott

Sounds nice and simple, but what if like me you're used to setting up, viewing and doing just about everything with the Director view, not the camera, if I rotate everything like you suggest, won't my view (director) be all wrong?

Fran: You can use a three-step solution to your dilemna: First, have your scene as you desire to see it from the Director positon. Then, use the drop-down option of sending the 'camera' to the 'director' position. Second, group everything as descibed above in scott's hint. Then go ahead and rotate the entire shebang as he says. Third, use the reverse of step one, and send the 'director' to the 'camera' position. This will 'recover' your point-of-view in relationship to everything in the scene that you first wanted.

Yep - that'll work for Fran. It's funny because the director view was originally only there to keep you from accidentally adding keyframes to an animation when you move the camera - hence Director. A lot of people use it as the primary camera for stills, just because it it so much easier to use. Hopefully they will fix the bug in 6.1 that maps the HDR incorrectly to begin with - the whole thing is off on the x axis by 90 degrees. Maybe they'll give us a rotation HDR conrol in 6.1 too - who knows? I hate workarounds as much as the next guy or gal, but you'll get a lot more out of your HDRs by being able to cast the light where you want it. Scott

I have always worked with director view myself for precisely that reason - it is sooo much friendlier to use.